Times of the Islands Summer 2022

The first of these Special Reports, “Global Warming
of 1.5ºC (SR15, 2018),” was requested by world governments
under the Paris Agreement. It discussed the
impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC above pre-industrial
levels and related global greenhouse gas emission pathways,
in the context of strengthening the global response
to the threat of climate change, sustainable development,
and efforts to eradicate poverty.
The findings were alarming, especially to small island
states such as the Turks & Caicos Islands, who were still
reeling from the impacts of Hurricanes Irma and Maria
in 2017. That unprecedented hurricane season had seen
super-storms annihilate whole islands in the Caribbean.
The Turks & Caicos Islands however, did not suffer the
same consequences. This was not merely by chance. In
fact, it was the environmental integrity of our little islands
that allowed “David” to battle the extreme “Goliath” that
barreled down on us on September 7, 2017.
The Turks & Caicos Islands boast a total of 34 protected
areas, covering 300 square miles of land and sea,
protected since the early 1970s. Marine Protected Areas
such as Columbus Landfall National Park, with limited recgreen
pages newsletter of the department of environment & coastal resources
reational activities, and the protected mangrove forests
of the Ramsar site, have ensured ecosystem conservation,
biodiversity preservation, and ultimately, a natural environment
that has loyally served us against the (literal)
rising tide that is Climate Change.
Recognising the significance of these ecological services
in maintaining environmental, social, and economic
sustainability of the Islands, the Ministry for Tourism and
the Environment signed the Climate Change Charter at
the Turks & Caicos Climate Change Summit on Earth Day,
April 22, 2022. Under the theme “Only One Earth: Invest
in Our Planet,” the Ministry, through the Department of
Environment & Coastal Resources (DECR) engaged with
public and private sector stakeholders to draft a comprehensive
commitment, the first of its kind in the region.
The event’s keynote speaker, Honourable Walter Roban,
Bermuda’s Deputy Premier, was so impressed by the document
that he requested a copy to inform Bermuda’s own
Climate Change policy.
Climate Change is without a doubt the defining challenge
of our time, and no country is immune to its effects.
We are currently in a critical time period in which global
BRYAN NAQQI MANCO
The mangrove wetlands in North Caicos are not only an important carbon sink, but possess both material and non-material cultural values
for the people of the TCI.
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